Lewes History Group

Lewes HMD is putting on a number of virtual events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2021:

Saturday 23 January 2–4pm (free online event): Haiku workshop on ‘acts of kindness in the worst of times’ from the Holocaust to the present lockdown era. Led by Christine Cohen Park, a writer, workshop facilitator and teacher. Email leweshmd1@gmail.com by 22 January, heading your email ‘event1’ and Lewes HMD will send you a Zoom link.

Saturday 23 January 7–8.30pm (free online event): The Holocaust legacy – discussion panel with local speakers from refugee, anti-racist and LGBT groups. Please note spaces are limited. Click to Register to receive an automated Zoom link.

Wednesday 27 January 8pm (free online event):  Be the Light in the Darkness. Local poets, musicians and others reflect on the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2021. At the end please join us in lighting in our own homes during a two-minutes’ silence. Email leweshmd3@googlemail.com, heading your email ‘event3’ and Lewes HMD will send you a Zoom link.

There will also be four amazing stories from Lewes residents, talking for the first time about family experiences in the Holocaust and other periods of war, find these on the Lewes HMD YouTube page

More information will be available via a window display at the Lewes Tourist Information Centre during the week 15-22 January, and also from the Lewes HMD Facebook page

Click image to enlarge
Please note the film screenings have been cancelled

In response to the move into Tier 4 and rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in the South East, The Keep archive centre will be closed to the public from 24^th December until further notice.

All events, tours, and workshops during this time will be postponed.

They will still be responding to phone and email enquiries, but please be aware there might be a delay to usual response times.

Whilst they remain closed to visitors, their research and reprographics service will still be running. To access The Keep services online, visit www.thekeep.info

A Zoom Webinar

Chris Taylor: Lewes Street Stories – Mill Road, Malling

The story of Mill Road, Malling is about the development of its industries and buildings alongside meeting the people who have lived and worked there since the 16th Century. In this talk Chris Taylor will present the findings of his recent investigation into the history of Mill Road, the latest in Lewes History Group’s ‘Street Stories’ series.

The street got its name from an imposing windmill that was present from at least the late 16th Century until it was destroyed by fire in 1908. A laundry overlapped with the mill and flourished for 40 years at the bottom of the road, where the flats now stand. It too burnt to the ground in 1941.

Generations of families have lived in Malling Hill Villas, an Edwardian terrace, built on the mill land. Facing them, a street of mixed council-built and private housing was developed in the 1920s and 1930s. Chris Taylor comments, “Over the years Mill Road has been home to millers on the fiddle, at least one Mayor of Lewes, wartime evacuees and a troupe of travelling players. I hope the audience will enjoy finding out about this small street’s past as I have.”

Malling Windmill and Mill House from the Wallands, c. 1858-1868
Cropped image reproduced with permission of Sussex Archaeological
Society Ltd.

To join this talk, you need to
  1) register your intention in advance
  2) receive our confirmation email with a link to the talk
  3) click on that link to attend the talk 10 minutes before it starts

LHG Members can attend our talks for free. We will send members emails with a link to Zoom registration. Then please follow steps 1, 2, and 3 as above. 

Non-members can buy a ticket (£4) from TicketSource. The ticket will provide a link to Zoom registration. Then please follow steps 1, 2, and 3 as above. 

Please join the webinar at 7:20pm.

We would recommend a computer screen or an iPad as a minimum screen-size for viewing our webinars.

Our presenters will be speaking live, and you can ask questions by typing in the Q&A box in Zoom.

See the Talks page for a list of  forthcoming monthly events organised by the Lewes History Group.